Inner Thighs & Quads

Yeah. Welcome today eight at where we are going to be unraveling the adductors and the inner size and the quads. Now both those muscle groups do a lot of work. They help keep our legs grounded and the quads especially can get bulky and restricted and they can pull our body forward and down so they have an effect on the hip flexors and on our posture as well as everything else. That's what we're going for. So for our pretests, before we do the work, let's have you lying on your stomach and just test the length of the quad.

So when you're lying down as your pelvic long and can you actually release the quad so that the foot comes in towards the buttock? Maybe you can, maybe you can't. It doesn't really matter. Some people can't even get to their feet because their quads are so tight and we want to keep these legs long. So just test notice where you're at. And then the other one is bringing the knee out to the side in this funny frog like position. How far from the floor are you in your groin and your hip?

I'm quite high on this side. I'm definitely tight in my inner thigh and then doing the same on the other side. How far this side, I'm almost touching, which means that adductor is much, much looser, so the joint is freer. So we remember your sensations and feelings. Let's see what happens after this work. When you start, you want your knee, oh, let's get this even further down. You want your knee and your foot on the foam roller more or less parallel to your body. If you notice my hip is in line with my knee, so this is 90 degree angle that I'm starting from and the foam roller is right on the inside of the knee and very slowly I'm starting to roll towards my stomach.

I can let the foot drop down and allow the foam roller to move back and forth on the tissue, on the inner side of the thigh. Moving a little bit further up, I'm now rolling even further down and I, some people can frog out quite extensively. I don't have that same range of movement. So you adjust your body position to what it's ready for. What it can do, roll a little bit further and keep adjusting the foot rolling back and forth and then getting all the way up very close to where they add that early inner thigh is going to be connecting in with the groin and pubic bones, a rum, ironing out that area.

Any places extra sensitive you spend more time. And then very slowly I'm rolling back and because I'm more restricted I start to roll onto the side. But ultimately if you can stay with your belly towards the floor, that's wonderful. So now starting out again on the same journey, but this time I'm adding a rotational aspect. I'm lifting my foot so I'm internally rotating the hip in the socket and dropping it down and I can feel how tight that joint is and how much.

And I'm also rolling all around the tissue on the inner part of the inner thigh as it attaches into the knee, which can get very tight rolling up another inch again, rolling the foot in, rolling the foot out, rolling the foot in. So I'm really feeling all of that pressure between the inner thigh and then its connection to the quad and then actually a little tiny bit as it moves towards the hamstring coming a little bit further up, allowing the hip to release a little bit more as those muscles start to let go of any fixed pattern, lifting the foot even rolling further. I'm actually lifting my hips up to allow more rotation because I want the tissue to get soft, so in this case I'm quite tight so you can go out of shape a little bit. The whole point is you want an elastic lubricated body coming a little bit further out. As I move out, I keep adjusting my pelvis down because I want my legs to stay at the 90 degree angle again, rolling the foot up, rolling the foot down, rolling the foot up. Definitely the tissue is tight here and down.

Rolling the foot up, rolling the foot down, rolling even further out and now I'm starting to feel the adductors are to really open up in relation to my groin and lifting the foot, lowering, lifting, lowering, lifting the knee. Trying to get my knee as high as it'll go and then rolling all the way up to the inner thigh. Now I'm right in the attachment where the adductors connected in to the groin. I can feel the pubic bone. You want to get in there and massage the area a little bit.

So all the attachments you can also work the knee up and down. And then on the way back I'm going to do the same slight movement up and down of the knee, keeping the leg turned out. So it's freeing up the joint a little bit more, releasing a lot of that tension even a little bit further up. This is the area where we are getting closer to the attachments where the muscles come down in towards the knee. So we want them soft and long and again up and down and coming all the way up.

And just for a minute I'm moving back and forth right across the tissue of the knee just to kind of loosen it up so it's not so hard and drying gristly feeling you could say. And already my hip has released so much. I'm going to take this out. How much lower my hip is going towards the floor and I feel my groin opening up. I hope you have the same. So moving onto the other side, going to flip around and set myself up the same way. Foam roller is parallel to the mat.

I'm starting out on the side of my body and I'm bringing my foot and my knee up, checking this diagonal line. Now on this side, I'm already more open so I know I can already start positioning myself a little bit. Um, with my belly down versus on the side cause there's more hip rotation. So just first of all, starting out a few pulses out in, in lengthening the adductor a little bit, right? I'm rolling the foam roll a little bit further. Now my foot can drape down and again, I'm rocking back and forth, digging into all of that tissue and really what's so amazing, the tissue gets longer and more stretch, but not because we stretch it, but because we put pressure into it to remove tension and adhesions. And that's really the miracle of this work.

It just restores elasticity by getting the tension and stress out, not by challenging it in any way. Okay. And moving further along, I'm probably two thirds of the way up. I can feel the thicker part of my ad. Doctor's starting to be rolled out and a little bit further and you can lift and lower your pelvis if you want to.

And then rolling all the way up right up to the attachment where the adductors connecting in with the pubic bone and groin rolling that area out and then rolling back out towards the knee. And here I'm pressing my pelvis down, now I'll start working the rotation apart. Okay. Rolling down. So I can feel the whole glue and pelvic area and the attachments of the adductors starting to be activated and length and at the same time and any tissue connecting into the inside of the knee is probably being loosened up.

Same thing again. And if you press your pelvis forward and down, you can get a little bit more juice out of this. And we all love juice going further, pressing slightly into the foam roller by pressing my pelvis down, lifting, trying to lift the knee without the pelvis, lifting Jess getting that tissue. So if I really roll, I'm going into my quad and we want all of this cross fibering of the muscles, so good for them going further. So I'm really high up. Now again, working the rotation, allowing the pelvis to move a little bit, that's fine. We just want to get all our body parts organize the right way or at least free to do as they were designed to do. Right up high again, internal rotation, external rotation, internal rotation, external rotation. One more time, internal rotation, external rotation.

And then as I start rolling back, I'm just imagine lengthening this whole area out and then from this position, working the knee up and down a little bit time, just um, grabbing the tissue and pulling it rolling at out, up and down. Okay. A little bit more up with the knee down with the knee up with the knee down with the knee. Oh yes. It's kind of taking all the tissue that connects into the bone and the skin and making it more elastic. Just wringing everything out. So any kind of sticky gunky, Gluey area is starting to be released slowly peeling back, oh this feels delicious.

Now my feels so much more open, rocking slightly in the pelvis, back and forth so I can feel the relationship of both legs and then taking the foam roller out and just checking and I'm just about on the floor now. I know I released a lot of tension in this area and I hope you did too. Okay, so this next part will be rolling out the quads. Quads get very sticky, very tight in, they are called quads cause they really for bands of muscle and they are attached together. They work as a unit, but we want to start safe separating these out as we work through this. You may feel slight clunk, clunk, clunk concepts and that's good because you're just feeling the fibers of the segments of the quad with start with the balls, right close to either side of the pubis but on the thighs. And then roll a little bit side to side.

This is called Cross fibering and we'll gradually walk the balls all the way down. I'll be on my stomach for that. Then we take the balls more in the mid line of the size, same thing side to side. We're looking to separate out all of this tissue and soften up muscle tissue that's become too hard and too bulked up and no longer strong actually of [inaudible]. And then the third one will be a little bit wider. Same concept to loosen up cross fiber, cross the muscles and get on. So starting out on my stomach, I got the balls together and I'm placing them right below the pubic bone on the top of the sides. Ah, and settling into it a little bit and then rolling to one side, rolling to the other side.

So I am not able to roll too far out and now I pull my body forward and you can adjust the balls. They may do all sorts of funny things and not stay totally together. Oh yes. I just felt my inner quads release a lot. Roll to one side, pressing into the balls. Now the thing is that you're wanting you if possible, you don't want your legs really relaxed.

You want them long and taunt because we want this ill. It's not a passive process. This work, it's actually quite active. If you notice I'm holding my body nice and long. I'm not just relaxing into the balls. Now I've rolled a little bit further forward.

I can totally feel and just very slightly as I'm working more the inner part of the quads further down. Now my tissue is getting more tight and kind of hardy. I can literally feel it so right here I'm finding it hard to roll across the balls so I'm just rolling my thighs. The balls actually aren't moving, moving further down, definitely as I get lower and I'll just go up and down a few times. Okay. Going a little bit side to side, I can feel how much more grippy and hard my quads are coming a little bit further now.

I'm right where the quads finish and get up to the knee and again a little bit side to side and the best part is rolling right back up. Oh feels delicious to where I started now taking the balls and moving them to the middle of the thigh so it's kind of view right in the center. Maybe between J it's for me it's a little bit below my hips, just centered and again side to side. Now more range of movement to roll with moving down side to side and again, just as always this material, if you have a place where it's really tight for you, spend more time, we'll come back to more and revisit it. You will soften up, your whole body will change and everything will improve and it doesn't always just shift totally in a day. In fact, every day that you do this, you will go deeper. Now I feel the clunky part.

I can totally feel the fibers of the muscle coming even further out. Okay, up to the knees. Just gently, not gently, what am I saying? But firmly rolling the tissues out, rolling back up and placing the balls. Even a little bit wider side to side. I'm getting keeping my legs a little wider to help keep the balls connected with the outside of the quads side to side.

Oh yes. It literally feels like I'm pulling my size, stretching it off the bone. I can't explain something, but it feels good like a really deep releasing massage, which it is actually because you're doing it to yourself and the glorious you can go right where you need it. Just a few up and down because it feels so good on my thighs. Just lovely. Right up next to the knees and very slowly. Whoa.

They went too far too wide. They don't have a mind of their own. These balls pressing into them, rolling all the way up, all the way up and coming off the bowels. So now we get to retest and see what happened it to our bodies from this work, so reach back and so much easier to pull the foot in. If you want to test even more, can you get the need to come off from the floor, which means the thighs even more open. Let's try the other side, pulling my foot right into my bottom and how far wall it's flying right up there. Definitely lengthened out and opened up the hip flexor, which was probably not tightness of the hip flexor, but try tightness of the quad and taking my knee to the side still needs more work, but definitely looser. And let's see the other side, this side, I'm almost flat. I feel like a little frog going out or like a baby that can just get their legs out to the side and I feel it opening up my glutes as well.

So why don't you come to a seated position, see what your hips feel like. See what your spine feel like. My legs feel like they're flopping open and just enjoy your new legs.